1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vertically adjustable emergency support of a car body, e.g. a railway car body, where an emergency spring is mounted on the underside of a car body so as to be concentric relative to a center pivot, and a clearance "w" is provided between said emergency spring and a striker plate.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Emergency supports are conventionally provided in railway bogies having air spring bags on each side. For the purpose of the emergency support, a cylindrical composite rubber-bonded-metal spring connected to the bogie side sill is arranged coaxially to the air bag at its underside. If an air bag fails, the car body comes to rest on said cylindrical spring, which acts as an emergency support. In order to enhance reliability against derailment, the rubber-bonded metal springs combined with the air bags are relied upon for emergency support only on one bogie of a car, whereas the other bogie has an emergency spring arranged concentrically about its center pivot, on which spring the car body will come to rest before the rubber-bonded metal springs of the air bags of this bogie come into operation. This results in a three-point support of the car body, whereby the bogie which has the centrally arranged emergency spring is capable of performing turning motions about its longitudinal axis where the track is twisted and, as a result, can follow irregularities of the track position free of any constraint. A disadvantage of the central emergency spring is in the fact that it is difficult to adjust the height of the emergency support. Whereas a vertical adjustment of the emergency supports integrated in the air bags is effected in a simple manner by packings placed between the bogie side sills and the rubber-bonded metal springs, this is not so easily possible in the case of the central emergency support because of the inaccessibility of the spring, and because of the center pivot (Gebrauchsmuster 81 37 758).